Korean literature needs translator autonomy to reach global readers

INCHEON — Korean literature’s growing international recognition must be matched by sustained translation funding and greater autonomy, translators said Thursday, warning that global success cannot rest on individual passion.

Speaking at “Translation: Text in Transit,” an international colloquium organized by the National Museum of World Writing Systems, Debora Smith, Anton Hur and Choi Mi-kyung called for support that enables translators to discover overlooked works while defending the human judgment behind literary translation.

Smith, who translated the 2016 Man Booker International Prize “The Vegetarian” by Han Kang, recalled choosing to learn Korean when its literature was barely available in British bookstores.

“Now it’s a completely different story. I see Korean literature and translation everywhere,” she said.

Smith and Hur emphasized that the breakthrough reflected years of work by translators across many languages, rather than a single award or author. Han’s Nobel Prize, Hur said, arrived amid Korean literature’s ascent, not before it.

Hur, whose translations of Chung Bora’s “Cursed Bunny” and Park Sang-yong’s “Love in the Big City” were both longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize, with “Cursed Bunny” advancing to the shortlist, has helped broaden the global readership for Korean literature beyond its best-known authors.

But growing visibility does not guarantee publication.

“The most important thing is that continued translation support,” Hur said. “Publishing a book overseas is always a miracle.”

He pointed to sample translation funding, which helps translators pitch books to foreign publishers, and urged institutions to allow translators, not just publishers, to apply. He also challenged the assumption that K-pop’s popularity would automatically translate into demand for Korean books.

Choi, a professor at Ewha Womans University’s Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation, who moderated the discussion, criticized Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI) policies that she said had shifted initiative toward publishers.

“We have become the objects of administration, rather than its subject,” she said, arguing that translators had lost opportunities to independently choose works and seek support.

LTI began shifting toward publisher-led support in 2014 to prioritize overseas publishing demand over translator-selected projects, and its separate grant programs accepting applications directly from translators ended in 2022.

Recalling her early translations of Hwang Sok-young's writings from while he was in prison, Choi said allowing translators to freely choose challenging projects could bring writers to international readers even without official enthusiasm.

Smith said Korean literature’s current presence in translation is only the beginning, with much of its 20th-century writing, including poetry and nonfiction, still unavailable in English, especially compared to the number of works from neighboring China and Japan.

“I think there does need to be a structural change in the industry as well,” she said.

Love for literature, they explained, cannot sustain translators through exhaustion and burnout. Publishers and institutions should not assume someone will always be willing to undertake the work, the translators agreed.

The speakers also rejected artificial intelligence (AI) as a substitute for literary translators.

Smith said translation draws on ethical commitments, political sensibilities and lived experiences, in addition to linguistic ability.

“So it seems very obvious to me that AI cannot do what individual human translators could do,” she said.

Hur said he avoided AI-generated search results because of inaccuracies and argued that readers ultimately protect human creativity by choosing human-made work.

“Only readers can save us from AI,” he said.

Choi said literary translation requires a deeply personal engagement with the work that machines cannot replicate. Although she uses AI in teaching to familiarize students with tools they may encounter professionally, she requires them to scrutinize its output for errors.

Novelist Hwang Sok-yong also drew a distinction between human creativity and AI’s imitation of it in an earlier session moderated by museum director Kim Myung-in.

“AI does not feel pain or fear death,” he said. “For now, I don’t think people who create need to worry about losing their jobs.”